SmartDrive, Geotab Announce Data Integration Agreement

The SmartDrive booth at MCE. (John Sommers II for Transport Topics)

AUSTIN, Texas — Video-safety company SmartDrive Systems and telematics provider Geotab have announced a collaboration through which information collected via SmartDrive’s data collection hub can be used with Geotab’s mobile app for a variety of compliance and productivity services, the companies announced here.

The agreement is a response to fleets’ desire to have a single data stream inform multiple systems on a truck, said Melissa Purcell, senior vice president for marketing and customer success for SmartDrive.

“Customers said, ‘You have all of this data, why can’t you be the box?’ ” Purcell said, referring to the onboard information hub that gathers data such as vehicle speed, time, driver information, location and other vehicle information for the company’s video-safety system. That same data can now be used with Geotab’s app that controls productivity applications such as electronic logging, asset tracking, driver vehicle inspection reports and International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) recording.

“Our data populates their application,” she said, eliminating the need for Geotab customers to connect a dongle to the vehicle’s electronic control module to collect data.

Purcell said SmartDrive plans similar agreements with other companies to give fleets the opportunity to choose the productivity applications they prefer.

SmartDrive's Melissa Purcell. (Joe Howard/Transport Topics)

“This is just the beginning,” she said. “It has always been our vision to be an open platform. We want our fleets to have access to information and data to do what they see fit.”

She added, “Our philosophy is, ‘We are good at what we’re good at. Get your ELD from people who are good at that.” She noted that Geotab, too, will continue its existing partnerships with other video providers.

“That is something that made this partnership make sense for us; we both have a philosophy of cooperation,” Purcell said.

“We have always said that our hardware is agnostic,” said Colin Sutherland, Geotab’s executive vice president of sales. “The SmartDrive video hardware integration is a solution that not only leverages Geotab’s platform strength to incorporate data from non-Geotab hardware, but it is a great example of telematics solutions that extend the capital investments across multiple solution providers.”